Dear Steve
In his sixteenth letter, Gilbert devotes the first paragraph to the Curlew. I won’t recreate what he says. What I will do, though, is bring him forward to today and talk about the situation with this bird.
After reading the letter, I needed to find out about curlews in particular. The website for The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) didn’t paint an optimistic picture. It makes me wonder how many other species are having problems, and really, how much of it is our fault. I think it would be reasonable to assume that Gilbert would be critical of what we are doing. Having said that, viewing our world through his lens (which is impossible for me), we do have some wonders that I think would amaze him.
On a more cheerful note, Gilbert goes on to talk about birdsong. Whilst he goes into detail about the song of the willow-wren, the closest I can get to birds is through their birdsong, I recognise some, the apparently random and unending trilling of the starlings, the whistling of blackbirds and Robins. The cheeky laughter of the magpies (always magenpies, in my mind), and the throat-wrenching caws of rooks and crows. I even have an app that listens and tells me what bird is singing.
When I was working, I went through a roughly 6-year phase of getting up at around half past five and going for a walk. As the year moved on, my connection with Dawn would change, and so would the birdsong. By far the best times were when the morning chorus was in full voice, and what a delightful cacophony of a multitude of birdsong it was. If you have never experienced the morning chorus, it really is worth the effort. Whilst not particularly tuneful, seagulls are interesting birds. On part of my walk during breeding season, I would encounter what I called “The Screaming Seagull”. The gull would launch itself off its perch and dive-bomb me. It never struck me, but it often got as close as 5 or 6 feet. It was an amusing, if slightly hair-raising situation.
At last, Gilbert starts to talk about insects. My experiences with ants last week, and the encounter with Mayflies, Cardinal Beetles, multi-spot ladybirds and others, mean that the insects are really out now.
All the best
Bill
PS apologies for not having picture of Curlew.
Bills Posts 